i-D Magazine Pre-Fall ‘Youthful’ Issue by Terry Richardson

Leave it to Terry Richardson to take the notion of ‘Youthful’ and imbue it with qualities that go deeper than looks and age. Challenging our preconceptions of Youth, Richardson asks us to consider the core elements of energy, vitality, invigoration and strength, separate from a number. Capturing the spirit of everlasting youth, he offers up these amazing i-D Pre-Fall 2012 covers for ‘The Just Kids Issue,’ starring Charlotte Free, Kelly Mittendorf and Cara Delevingne. Moving past the surface, i-D invites us to abandon the confining rules of age-discrimination, and throw out our antiquated ideas on life-experience, in favor of a more quality based system. I’m inspired to hope that this may be indicative of a change of tides within pop-culture. That the “Reality Era,” of rewarding people without talent, or honoring things that don’t exist, may be coming to an end. Is it possible that we are finally realizing that we don’t need those people. That while they are free to go after anything they desire, we are not required to give up our most coveted, creative positions to those who haven’t earned it. That beauty & popularity aren’t a replacement for talent and education, and that having a camera follow you around isn’t synonymous with being a author, thespian, designer or singer. We don’t have to accept the systematic redistribution of desirable opportunities, or the destruction of our artistic standards. We don’t have to go down without a fight. And to this end, if these images are that glimmer of hope that I’ve been waiting for – then I’ll take it.